234 Big Game Fishes 
The tarpon, ranked by its devotees as the great- 
est of game fish, is perhaps the only one which is 
utterly scorned as a food fish. I found my negro 
oarsman poring over an old geography one day at 
Garden Key, carefully measuring a map of Florida 
from Loggerhead up, with a foot rule. Finally he 
said: “ Boss, disher’s a mighty out-ob-de-way place. 
I’s jes’ reckonin’, an’ hit’s jes’ two hundred and 
fifty miles from a watermelon patch.” 
“ Well, you have a tarpon, the finest-looking fish 
in the world,” I said, referring to the one caught. 
“Yes, sa’, hit looks fine; so does hay. Id 
rather eat hay dan tarpon, yes, suh, I would.” 
The great fighter is caught mainly for the sport 
it affords, its relations to the angler as game 
being similar to those of certain animals to the 
hunter, who often risks his life to obtain the skin. 
The tarpon season at Boca Grande, Captiva, 
Marco, Naples, and other places, is marked every 
year by remarkable sport, and now that railroads. belated 
have opened up Florida and palatial hotels are 
found all alongshore, the angler can reach the 
best tarpon grounds with every comfort. At 
these places anglers from all over the civilized 
world congregate and try conclusions with this 
marvellous game, and as a result, boatmen have 
